this is "nightline." >> tonight, unsealed. te highly redacted 38-page affidavit the government used to justify the unprecedented search of former president trump's mar-a-lago estate. what it reveals about the investigation. plus, who killed leah? a teenage girl murdered, her high school sweetheart arrested. >> why do they think you did it? >> they have nothing else to go on, i'm the boyfriend. >> nearly two decades later, the evidence that changed everything. >> i'm an innocent man, and innocent people don't go to jail. >> and why questions still remain. >> if he's claiming he wasn't with her after 9:00, but we can show he was with her, what's he hiding? >> one mother in mourning as one

man walks free. >> whoever did this needs to pay. >> and now the new interview. it's time for the biggest sale of the year, on the sleep number 360® smart bed. why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because proven quality sleep is vital

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justify the unprecedented search of former president trump's florida estate earlier this month. the heavily redacted document showing the timeline of events leading up to that search. and the seriousness of the ongoing criminal investigation. the affidavit stating, the national archives began requesting missing presidential records from donald trump in may of 2021. in january, 15 boxes of documents were sent from trump's mar-a-lago home by his representatives. the national archives then made a referral to the doj in february over concerns those boxes held highly classified records. when the fb reviewed the material in may, agents found 184 classified documents. the fbi saying some documents held at mar-a-lago likely contain national defense information, and some appear to contain trump's handwritten notes. the doj pointing to potential crimes including improper removal and storage of

classified information, unlawful removal or concealment of government records, as well as obstruction. donald trump's team tonight filing clarifying information in their motion to request a special master to review materials taken by the fbi. now we turn to a decades-old murder mystery, the shocking death of a teenage student rocking a small community in oregon. her boyfriend, once found guilty of killing her, a free man, conviction overturned. an update on the grim reality he faced once he was released. >> i just figured, you know, the truth will come out, you know. i'm an innocent man, and innocent people don't go to jail. >> what do you think this is all about? >> they said it's for the murder of leah freeman. >> did you do it? >> no, i didn't do it. they have nothing else to go on, and i'm the boyfriend. >> this afternoon, the body of a teenage female, tentatively

identified as leah freeman, was discovered. >> whoever this needs to pay. >> if he's claiming he wasn't with her but we can show he was with her, what's he hiding? >> i had met leah when i was walking through the gym. she was a freshman, and i was a senior. leah was like a sparkle. >> he was always in love in a way, you know, he always had a girl, the girls liked him. >> he was definitely a flirt. he was kind of into every girl. but he did seem like he really cared about her. >> he seemed like an okay kind of guy. but still, the age difference was there. and then i found out that they were -- being sexually active. that was disturbing. >> i'll never forget that day. it started out like any normal day. >> i hadn't seen her for a while. we were still really good friends, but we didn't hang out

as much because she was with nick a lot. >> she was at sherry's, and she wanted to go jogging and asked sherry to go with her. sherry asked her mom, and her mom said no. because every time you do, nick comes and picks leah up, and you end up walking home alone. so leah heard that, and i guess she got mad and started to walk off. >> she was headed toward the high school. spotted by numerous witnesses along the way. >> the next witness says that around 9:30 p.m., she sees leah standing outside a pay phone. and there are two men arguing nearby. next time we see leah, she's standing outside the gas station. and that's the last time that anyone sees leah. several minutes later, a witness hears a high-pitched scream. >> it was 9:00. i went to go over to sherry's to go get leah.

asked her where leah was. >> she was probably walking home, i'm sure if you drive to her house, you'll find her. >> nick gets back into his car and starts driving through the town of coquille, looking for leah. >> he did call the house, is leah there? and i said, leah, no, isn't they with you? he goes, well -- it's all right, don't worry, i'm going to find her and i'll bring her home. >> i mean, i had even talked to police twice that night. my headlight was out and i got pulled over for it both times. told them that i was looking for my girlfriend. i decided to go by leah's house one more time. and i saw a glare on her window. thought it was her tv. back then it was 2000, it's not like she could send me a text, she couldn't call me on a cell phone. i thought she was home, and i went home after that. leah's mom corey calls at 7:30

or 8:00 in the morning the next day. >> where's leah? she's not here. he goes, she didn't come home last night? and i said, no, where is she? he goes, i don't know. >> i went into town as quick as i could. i talked to corey. we went down to the police department. we filed a missing persons report. the police basically told us that leah was probably a runaway. >> i knew something was wrong. this girl had no reason to run away. >> i don't remember what date it was the police called me, they wanted to talk to me. so of course i'm going to go in, i'm going to help them. >> today is june 30th. it is 13:48 hours. how would you characterize her personal life? >> when she's around me, i don't know, she seems really bright, happy-go-lucky, giggly. she's just a really good person. >> i started to have my concerns when it kind of started -- i

guess trying to twist my words. >> the night that leah disappeared, it's about 11:40. the mechanic worked the swing shift. he's driving home. and he saw a shoe lying in the road. that person came forward with the shoe. we showed it to leah's sister. she said, i think that's her shoe. >> then, on the 4th of july, her other shoe is discovered. and it's got blood on it. >> the distance from where the left shoe was found on hudson ridge back to the town of coquille is about 10 miles. >> when we had that second shoe with her blood on it, i think everybody felt that this was not going to end well. >> the body of a teenage female tentatively identified as leah freeman was discovered. >> her death is being treated as a homicide, but investigators are saying little else. >> i think that everybody was

quick to point fingers at thick because he's the most likely person, being her boyfriend. >> police just aren't able to make any kind of a case stick. >> as time went by, it slowly became a cold case. >> fast forward nearly a decade. a new sheriff comes to town, and he wants to look into the case. >> we looked at every person that was identified as a possible suspect in this case. and then we went forward. no matter which way we went, at the end of the day, it came back to nick mcguffin. >> we've interviewed over 100, almost 200 people in the last six months. >> with all these witnesses coming forward, police say they're getting information that appears to contradict what nick has said all along, that he had not seen leah after he dropped her off at her girlfriend's house around 7:00. >> i had basically drove everywhere for that four hours, looking for her, and i didn't see her once. >> we have several witnesses

that actually place nick with leah after 9:00. if he's claiming he wasn't with her after 9:00, but we can show he was with her, what's he hiding? >> i decided to take it to the grand jury. called over 110 witnesses. and after presenting all this evidence, they came back and said, we think nick did it, we think he ought to be charged. >> i noticed i was being followed. when i pulled up to my mailbox, cars everywhere. >> separate your feet. >> what do you think this is all about? >> well, obviously they said it's for the murder of leah. >> do you do it? >> no, i didn't do it. look at my life, man. >> why do they think you did it? >> because they have nothing else to go on, i'm the boyfriend. >> when i got arrested, it felt

like a nightmare that i was trying to wake up there are but i never woke up. when we come back, nick's nightmare comes alive in court. >> what, if anything, did the defendant tell you? >> that i strangled that bitch, and i'll strangle you too. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. announcer: ozempic® provides powerful a1c reduction. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weight. adults lost up to 14 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right

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witness after witness, trying to convict nick mcguffin of murder and manslaughter for the killing of leah freeman. >> you saw them together? >> i did. >> the timing was important, because it put a hole in nick's story is what it did. i argued what happened was, they got into an argument, it got physical, and it went bad from there. >> the state's case against nick is that he was very, very upset that leah was going to break up with him. >> tried to get her into the car, she loses her shoe. she screams, and in an effort to keep her quiet, or in anger, he strangles her. >> then a witness for the prosecution claims nick confessed to the murder. >> was there a confrontation with the defendant? >> several. >> what, if anything, did the defendant tell you?

>> that i strangled that bitch, and i'll strangle you too. >> david breakfield was never one of my friends. he had dated my daughter's mother for a little bit. i know i never said anything like that. >> the biggest problem for breakfield in his testimony is the eight-year gap between the time he says it happened and the time he tells the authorities. >> if he made that statement, weren't you curious enough to start talking to people about who it was he would have killed? >> no, sir. >> you didn't care who he killed? >> i just tried to stay as far away from the situation as i could. >> there was no dna evidence tying him to leah. there was no evidence in his car. there was just nothing physically to show that he, in fact, did this. and there wasn't any reason for him to do it.

>> but if convicted of murder, nick could face life behind bars. >> i remember looking down in my mind probably asking god for help. i was praying for the right answer. >> as to count one, murder, you find the defendant not guilty. >> the answer to his prayers, a not guilty verdict on the main charge of murder. >> as to the lesser included offense of manslaughter and perjury, we find the defendant guilty. >> i think i nearly jumped out of my seat. i mean, it was almost like a lightning bolt hit me. >> in this case there's even more incentive for the prosecutor to request a manslaughter charge. >> it's because oregon has this quirky law. >> because for murder, you need a unanimous verdict. and in oregon, for manslaughter, you can have two holdouts. >> we found out that it was ten in favor of guilt and two in

favor of acquittal. >> if this happened in any other state with two jurors unwilling to convict, it would end up in a hung jury. >> nick was sentenced to ten years. >> behind bars for a crime he says he did not commit, little did nick mcguffin know that a guardian angel was about to come to the rescue. >> there's several other organizations that deal with wrongful convictions. wrote to every one of them. that was probably 2015. and that's when the oregon innocence project finally took his case. >> i had a really strong sense that nick was innocent. because of the evidence that i was looking at. it didn't make sense to me. there's no blood, no hairs, no fibers, no dna connecting this crime to nick. >> police told "20/20" in 2010 that the shoe that had the blood on it was found right in town, on north elm street. >> that shoe that was found on

north elm street had no blood on it. and instead, there was a shoe that was found ten miles away, out in the woods, that had blood stains on it. there were over 20 witnesses who saw nick driving around that night, looking for leah. he doesn't have time to commit this crime when you actually look at this. >> we had one eyewitness that put him and her together near the metro place. around 9:00. >> we know that can't be true. because we have documentation of another witness who sees leah walk by the atm, and the police officers go out to that atm and pull those records and confirm that that is 9:04 p.m. they create an entire theory to convict a man based on evidence that is just wrong. >> then a shocking discovery. bolstering nick's claim of innocence. >> we were surprised when we looked at the raw data from the

original dna testing in 2000. there was actually dna from an unidentified male found on both of leah's shoes. her right shoe and her left shoe. that was a huge moment for her case. >> back in 2000, that was the infancy of our dna testing. the analysts at the time chose not to actually call out that potential male dna because she couldn't decide what it was. because it was at a very, very low level. >> if the jury in 2011 knew that there was dna of an unidentified male on the victim's bloodstained shoe, the jury would have acquitted, no doubt in my mind. >> mcguffin's new attorney made the argument that under the law, they were required to turn over this evidence from the lab. and they didn't. and that that failure should lead, at least, to a new trial. >> it's our top story in oregon.

>> after more than nine years, the judge overturns nick mcguffin's conviction. >> just because the judge throws out the conviction does not mean that nick mcguffin is going to be a free man. >> judge sullivan sends that case right back to the da's office to make a decision. new trial or not? >> we made the decision of, no, don't go forward. >> whoo! >> it was wonderful seeing him, knowing he was free. >> when you do this wrongful conviction work, you live for the moment. y you get to walk an innocent client out of prison. we got that moment with nick. >> 22 years later, and still, no one else has been arrested for leah freeman's death. >> i want justice. i want for whoever killed her to pay for it. because they've been walking free for years. and it's just wrong. when we come back, a post-pandemic update with nick.

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♪ getting out, then covid hitting, it was kind of a shell shock. like okay, i'm tree. you get out, covid hits, everything's locked down. it was almost like an extra year in prison. since i've been out, i've had three different jobs. all three in the coronary field. the main reason i moved to portland was for my daughter. i wanted to create the bond that we had created over the years, to keep that going. i have a lot of making up to do. i have a lot of time to make up to her. i know she knows that i love her and i always will.

>> that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here, same time monday. thanks for the company, america. have a good and safe weekend.